On January 15, 2002,
Earthjustice, a U.S. nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm,
called upon the UN Commission on Human Rights to urge the U.S. and Colombia
to halt its aerial herbicide application program to eradicate coca and
poppy and consider alternative methods. This strategy in the War on Drugs,
a part of "Plan Colombia," is causing numerous human rights
violations. Earthjustice submitted the intervention with the support of
the Amazon Alliance, a coalition of Amazonian peoples organizations and
environmental and human rights groups.

The statement claims
that the aerial spraying and drift of an herbicide mixture over vast areas
of the Colombian and Ecuadorian countryside by private U.S. defense contractors
with military protection is harming peasants and indigenous communities
and depriving them of "their rights to a clean and healthy environment,
health, life, sustenance, property, inviolability of the home and family,
and access to information."

Since the aerial fumigations
began, there have been thousands of reports of serious health problems,
destruction of food crops and livestock, contamination of surface water,
damage to surrounding wilderness areas, and deforestation resulting from
the need of peasants to clear forests and plant food crops on uncontaminated
lands.

"Sadly, the United
States and Colombia are saying that this strategy is more important than
the health, livelihood, and environment of Colombian and Ecuadorian rural
communities," said Scott Pasternack, Associate Attorney with Earthjustice's
International Program. "The State Department has concealed information
about the true toxicity of the spray mixture and has failed to conduct
proper environmental and health assessments. Moreover, they repeatedly
point to the deforestation from coca and poppy production but ignore the
greater amount of deforestation caused by the communities' need to plant
new legal crops as a result of this environmentally-damaging program."